Cutting inserts for milling cutters are known from the prior art which are clamped in a tool body of the milling cutter by means of a clamping element, for example by means of a screw. The clamping element is thereby assigned to a main surface of the cutting insert, that is to say a relatively large surface of the cutting insert in order to fix the cutting insert on the tool body. If the clamping element is a screw, this usually extends through a hole in the cutting insert, which runs through both main surfaces of the cutting insert. Such a design is shown in FIG. 6.
The milling cutter 100 known from the prior art has, for example, a cylindrical tool body 102 which rotates about an axis of rotation A during the operation of the milling cutter 100. The tool body 102 has a recess 104, into which a cutting insert 106 is inserted. The cutting insert 106 rests directly on the tool body 102, which is oriented perpendicular to the direction of rotation, via a first main surface, wherein a screw 108 is inserted via a second main surface 110, which is opposite the first main surface, in order to clamp the cutting insert 106. The screw 108 is guided through a hole 112 in the cutting insert 106, which represents the clamping section of the cutting insert 106. Typically, the hole 112 is provided centrally in the second main surface 110 in order to clamp the cutting insert 106 as uniformly as possible and to be able to rotate or turn it when it is a turning cutting insert.
The screw 108 extends substantially perpendicularly to the axis of rotation A of the milling cutter 100 and to an active cutting edge 114 of the cutting insert 106, via which a workpiece is machined with the milling cutter 100.
In addition, other embodiments are known in which the screw or the clamping element does not extend exactly perpendicularly through the cutting insert but at an angle so that the clamping element exerts a force on the cutting insert during clamping which has at least two force components in different directions. However, here, too, the clamping element extends essentially perpendicularly to the axis of rotation of the milling cutter and to the active cutting edge of the cutting insert.
Due to this arrangement of the clamping element, it is possible for the clamping element to loosen during the operation of the milling cutter, as a result of which the cutting insert is no longer sufficiently fixed in the milling cutter.